Havok Complete free for PC developers

Havok has decided to release a new package called Havok Complete, which will be completely free for PC developers.

Havok Complete will include the Havok Physics engine and Havok Animation, giving developers access to one of the leading middleware solutions currently used in many of the new titles released across the PC and consoles game space.

Speaking of the decision to offer the company’s tools for free, David O’Meara, managing director of Havok, said:

Havok has an excellent revenue base generated by sales of our three products across multiple platforms and into multiple industries … This enables us to make an industry-changing move and opens up a much broader market for products such as Havok Behavior – and our new products Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction – that really come alive when adopted on top of our core platform, Havok Complete.

Havok Complete will be released in May this year. Its usage is dependent on projects being non-commercial, however, Havok has also said the following:

Havok has entered into an agreement with Intel, Havok’s parent company, under which approved game developers on the PC platform can execute a commercial distribution license with Havok for free.

This bodes well for independent developers who may be able to use Havok Complete in the commercial projects they do. I doubt we will know specifically what that means until May, but hopefully small teams of independents are going to get access to a very nice free physics engine.